Referendum

Good politicians and leaders accept defeat gracefully. They walk away after a democratic vote when they have lost.

Gordon Brown did it in 2010 and many more before him.

He held his head up high and walked away with his wife and children with dignity.

Surely the Scottish people can now see what Alex Salmond is?

He is a man still pursuing his own personal vendetta for independence.

The referendum is over and you resigned Mr Salmond, so what are you doing going on walk-abouts trying to convince people of backdoor ways to achieve your goal?

If you wanted to keep pursuing independence then you should not have resigned. Stop moaning like a spoilt child – you lost, so grow up and take it like a man.

D Dunbar, Sherburn.

AS Scotland remains in Great Britain, perhaps now is the time for it to start paying for prescriptions.

This would help improve the NHS deficit and put everyone on the same playing field.

K Phillips, Darlington.

THERE could well be a case for a reconsideration of an elected Northern Regional assembly.

What we voted on in 2004 looked like an over-arching tier of local government and not genuine devolution.

If a devolved elected regional assembly structure is the answer for Scotland other parts of the country should have it too.

I think there should be a nationwide reconsideration of our constitution.

Any new settlement should not be designed to be to the advantage of any political party.

The political parties should come together to honour the pledges they were obliged to make to Scottish electors. Anything less would be a stitch-up I wish I could be confident this will happen because the political class don’t seem to be capable of thinking beyond their own electoral advancement.

What we need is a new mindset in politics, but that can only come from active participation by electors starting with campaigning organised by voluntary organisations outside of formal politics.

G Bulmer, Billingham.

MICHAEL GOVE’S assertion that “it would be impossible to move forward” without ensuring “English votes for English laws” is nonsense (Echo, Sept 22).

It would be perfectly possible to make rapid progress with the Scottish devolution plans as promised while taking the time required to consider English devolution proposals thoroughly.

There need not be any unnecessary delay.

The ‘West Lothian question’ is one that has remained unanswered for decades and does not need an ill-considered solution that is little more than a blatant attempt to rig the scales in favour of the Tories, a party which has not won an outright majority in a General Election for more than 20 years.

There is a demand from the localities for a more direct say in how resources are spent, but disadvantaged and disaffected people living in the North are not going to be satisfied with a response that merely hands more power to a select clique in either Westminster or Manchester.

Any debate needs to remember that there are a lot of English people living in the rural areas and towns outside of the large cities.

Ash Johnson, Hartlepool.

THE talk of devolving powers to the English regions was debated a number of years ago.

Then the No campaign erected a white elephant on Palace Green, in Durham City, which certainly reflected the feeling at that time.

The public on that occasion voted a resounding No and that view will not have changed.

One thing is certain, if Westminster imposes regional government or devolves extra powers to the regions people know in their own minds that all this will create is jobs for the boys,who are hand-picked and I suspect have their huge salaries negotiated on the golf course. Or it could be achieved with a simple ‘nod and wink’?

County cllr John Shuttleworth, Durham County Council.

IN 1964, fully 50 years ago, MPs from Scotland delivered Labour an overall majority of four when there would otherwise have been a Conservative overall majority of one that would not have lasted a year.

In October 1974, MPs from Scotland turned what would have been a hung Parliament with Labour as the largest party into a Labour overall majority so tiny that it was lost in the course of that Parliament.

In 2010, MPs from Scotland turned what would have been a small Conservative overall majority into a hung Parliament with the Conservatives as the largest party and with David Cameron as Prime Minister, anyway.

On no other occasion since the war, if ever, have MPs from Scotland influenced the outcome of a general election.

With the government committed to the Barnett Formula, there cannot be any such thing as exclusively English legislation, since it all has knock-on effects in Scotland and Wales.

Certain grandees of the commentariat need to be pensioned off, or at the very least to have their copy subjected to the most basic fact-checking by editorial staff.

D Lindsay, Lanchester.